Mr.Gallatin was fast realizing the magnitude of his undertaking, in which he was greatly embarrassed by the difficulty of finding faithful examining clerks, on whose correctness and fidelity a just settlement of all accounts depends.

The number of independent offices attached to the Treasury made the task still more arduous.

He wrote to Jefferson at this time, "It will take me twelve months before I can thoroughly understand every detail of all these several offices.

Current business and the more general and important duties of the office do not permit me to learn the lesser details, but incidentally and by degrees.

Until I know them all I dare not touch the machine." One of the acquirements which he considered indispensable for a secretary of the treasury was a "thorough knowledge of book-keeping." The recollection of his persistent demands for information from Hamilton and Wolcott during his congressional career would have stung the conscience of an ordinary man.